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Wishful

Chapter V

"Live without your sunlight. Love without your heartbeat."

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Dinner was quiet. Sarah felt awkward because of their rather illuminating afternoon together. Love seemed rather farfetched, didn't it? A fey enchanter, King of a magical land, falling in love with a whiney fifteen-year-old human mortal? It was the sort of thing that happened in fairy tales.

Jareth wasn't eating, choosing instead to brood into his crimson wine. When he finally caught her staring at him she was rather shocked at the sadness reflected there, one sky blue now and the other a steely gray.

"I wish you would give me something to do Sarah," he mused so quietly she wasn't sure if she was meant to hear him at all.

"What do you mean?" She asked anyway—she had never trodden with caution in her dealings with him anyway.

He tipped his head back to drain his wine goblet in one long gulp, his pale slender throat highlighted by the flickering candles. "I fulfilled your expectations last time, didn't I? A little too well your reaction to me now is anything to go by." He said a little regretfully. "Now the only thing you desire is beyond even my power to give you."

"My freedom." Sarah reminded him unnecessarily.

"Wouldn't you rather have the moon?"

She laughed and reached for the wine but when she glanced at his face as she leaned forward to refill his glass she was shocked by his hopeful sincerity.

"Could you? Give me the moon that is?"

"I could place the sky within your eyes or the moon within your heart or lead you on a path between the stars," he trailed off. "We've been strangers but it doesn't have to remain that way." (*)

Sarah was beginning to wonder if remaining in the Underground would be so awful after all. Jareth seemed able to pass between the two worlds, which gave her hope since she was not prepared to completely give up Toby and Kate. But a woman could write books in a tower room as well as a dingy apartment.

She hurriedly topped off her own glass and stood. Time to retreat before any of these traitorous ideas took root.

"Goodnight stranger," she saluted him with her wine glass.

His mouth twisted a little but he dutifully lifted his glass in response.

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It took her all morning to decide on the first steps of her plan to trial run an attempt at dual citizenship, after a fashion anyway. Jareth hadn't made a nuisance of himself today and if she was honest, she was rather missing him.

She found him in the throne room, reclining across a leather-draped mound as he heard from his subjects. She only meant to peek in and try to ascertain whether or not he would be able to get away for lunch so she could make her own supplication but the goblins near the door noticed her and a whisper spread through the masses.

Jareth lifted bright eyes to see the disturbance Sarah belatedly wished she had stepped back.

But he smiled and sat up, patting the space next to him in such a charmingly inviting manner she almost laughed. It seemed completely at odds with the grim sort of King he had seemed during their first meeting.

The whole court had stopped and all waited to see what their reluctant Almost-Queen would do. Curious and a bit flattered she crossed the wide room and climbed the steps to sit next to him. He gave her a look that was equal parts smug and pleased and looped an arm loosely around her waist in a proprietary gesture.

When she didn't object, he relaxed slightly against her and motioned for the gnarled little goblin to continue his longwinded supplication.

When the goblin requests had been dealt with, with a lot more listening, nodding, and pleasant agreement from Jareth than Sarah was used to seeing the court emptied and Jareth rubbed his gloved hands together with a smile.

"Lunch?" He asked. One eye was golden and the other violet under his pointed brows.

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Sarah waited until they had finished eating before declaring, "I want to make a deal."

"With me?"

"And the Labyrinth."

"Oh this will be entertaining, do go on," he sat back in his dining chair and made a motion with one gloved hand. His face was so carefully blank, his voice mocking and stare full of wary challenge.

"I want to go home—" she began.

His eyes closed as if in pain. "I have explained to you, Sarah, again and again—"

"To visit. Jareth, you have to listen."

His strange mismatched eyes widened slightly. "Rather Beauty and the Beast, isn't it?"

"The comparison had occurred to me," Sarah allowed.

He cocked his head, silently regarding her.

"We always try to have Sunday dinner together and I would like to keep the tradition," she finally offered, by way of explanation.

He nodded slowly, "Today is Sunday Aboveground."

"Can it be done? Can I go home for a little while and see the kids and eat dinner?"

He took a deep breath, "It can be done. Get ready and I'll take you up in an hour." He stood abruptly and stalked silently from the room.

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They stood at the top of the street, looking down at the house that Sarah had grown up in and where they had first had the pleasure of meeting. She smiled a little, because—for all its danger and trial—their meeting and the subsequent quest had been one of the most formative experiences of her life. The house looked deceptively the same with its Victorian style wooden trim and its peaked tower, painted crisp white and sunny yellow.

She smiled, already anticipating seeing Toby and sweet baby Kate again but when she took an eager step forward Jareth's gloved hand tightened slightly on her elbow.

She glanced back, equal measures annoyed and concerned, but Jareth's gaze was strangely serious.

"If you're trying to run away Sarah, I have to warn you it won't work. The Labyrinth has a claim on you." He wasn't mocking anymore; his expression was a little sad. He reached out with his other gloved hand to tentatively touch her cheek again.

Sarah leaned into his caress slightly and the furrow between his arched brows eased a little.

"That's not a threat," he reminded her, quietly. "It's just the way it is."

Sarah smiled a little, thinking of all the threats traded between them five years before. "If you were threatening me I would know it."

He leaned forward a touch and for a breathless moment, Sarah thought he was going to kiss her, right here in the middle of her old neighborhood, in full view of her family's home. But the moment passed and he pulled back, closing his eyes with a slight grimace.

"I'll be back." He finally murmured, frowning slightly. When your time is up. Hung unspoken between them.

Sarah gave him a little wave and trotted off down the street. Goodness, save her from overdramatic Goblin Kings. He behaved like she was off to her own execution, not just having a normal dinner with her family.

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Toby and Kate were glad as ever to see her and she managed to sequester herself in the playroom with them both for a few hours. Kate was still young enough that she adored being held and snuggled and Sarah obliged. Toby had school projects and new toys to show her, friends to tell her about and Kate to complain about.

The real trial began after the children had been fed and bundled off to bed and her father and step-mother sat her down in the formal dining room to enjoy the traditional bland chicken and green beans they often served. Sarah often wished that she was willing to rock the boat by eating cheese sandwiches in the kitchen with Toby instead and leaving early.

There was the usual small talk; Irene's bridge club and her father's latest promotion, what Toby was learning in preschool and Kate's latest milestone.

Sarah endured it all with good grace but when her father wiped his mouth and leaned back and Sarah knew what was coming. The obligatory 'What's new?' as though he actually cared and didn't think her modestly successful authorship career wasn't as silly as her mother's acting had been before her career had fizzled off.

"Well…" she swallowed and leaned back and studied her plate seriously. "I've moved and—"

"To a better area of town, I hope!" Her father interrupted. "If you'd let us we could put you up in some of those nice new condos they are building near the river."

This was a familiar scene—her father offering her money thinly disguised as gifts. Besides his fronting her publishing costs for her first novel, Sarah hadn't allowed him to contribute to her daily life. It had seemed too much like a bribe. And to what end she wasn't completely certain. She had come to terms with the divorce and her father's new family. She adored Toby and Kate, even if her stepmother still got on her nerves. She dutifully and mostly joyfully came to Sunday dinners except when her father and stepmother were traveling or her own deadlines loomed too large. Whatever lingering guilt her father nursed was none of her concern.

"Actually I met someone," She shot Irene a smile. Finally, after five long years, she could tell her stepmother that she had a date. There would be no reason to include that she had actually known the man for just as long and he happened to be a dangerous, magical King straight out of her favorite fairytale play.

Irene made a pleased sound. "Finally! I've been so worried about you Sarah."

Sarah bit back a laugh. Yes, Irene had brought up Sarah's singleness and lack of dates almost every Sunday. It was one of her most annoying habits.

"When can we meet him?" Her stepmother pressed.

"Uhm…" Oops. Sarah imagined Jareth in his flowing robes or tight leather jackets, hair wild, crystals clattering in his palm, turning up on her father's doorstep with a smirk on his angular face. It would be a disaster. "Well he is pretty busy and I didn't want to just spring him on you all. I'll have to see if he can get a free weekend."

"So he does work then," her father inquired severely.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Yes dad, he's in management—very exclusive and busy." Ruling a magical kingdom, stealing babies, flirting with human girls, flying around like an overgrown pigeon… the list could go on.

Robert looked poised to asked more uncomfortable questions about Jareth that she probably couldn't answer when Irene blessedly interrupted.

"Oh look, Robert, the owl is back!" Irene enthused, motioning to the dining room window.

A large Barn Owl perched in the tree outside, perfectly framed by the bow window.

"Back?" Sarah inquired curiously.

"Oh yes, didn't you notice it growing up? It was always hanging around. I haven't seen it in a while… since you moved out actually," Irene mused.

Well if that wasn't a clue to her exit nothing was.

Sarah stood and folded her napkin. "Thank you for dinner. I might not be by next week but I'll let you know. Kiss the kids for me."

"And your boy?" Irene pressed.

Jareth being called a boy, Sarah smirked. She hoped Irene did it to his face. "I'll talk to him," she promised.

"We should meet him, Sarah," her father said severely, frowning. "I wished you'd have introduced us before it got serious."

It had always been serious, Sarah thought.

"I'll talk to him," she repeated.

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Letting herself out the front door she glanced towards the now empty tree. No owls in sight.

Sighing she walked down the steps and prepared to head back up to where Jareth had dropped her off. A movement to her right caught her off guard but it was just Jareth, emerging from the darkness.

"Time is up," he said softly, and a bit unnecessarily. His expression was tense and his gloved hands were clenched as though he was preparing for a struggle.

Sarah left the shadow of the porch to take his arm without protest. "I'm tired," she murmured as the Aboveground faded.

(*) Taken, unapologetically, from the lyrics to As the World Falls Down.